CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



155 



resting upon a solid and reliable specie basis 

 might be in such a state of doubt and suspicion, 

 it would have gone into the banks or the hands 

 of capitalists who dare not use it in business; 

 as the blood in a chill shrinks back to the 

 heart. 



" Still, in spite of all these obstacles, confi- 

 dence would long since have been restored and 

 business enterprises resumed their normal con- 

 dition, but for the wild financial schemes of 

 bankrupt debtors, all of which schemes con- 

 sisted in running still more deeply in debt, or 

 paying only in empty promises which were 

 never to be fulfilled ; like the greenback theory 

 of finance, started first by the iron manufac- 

 turers and taken up by decayed politicians and 

 sought to be forced upon the Government. 



" But this insane delusion had already been so 

 thoroughly exposed that the country had ceased 

 to fear it, and all things were working upward 

 before this bill of ill omen came into the Sen- 

 ate. Confidence was being rapidly restored; 

 the Treasury notes had risen to ninety-seven 

 or ninety-eight cents in gold, and would soon 

 have been at par with gold, when specie re- 

 sumption would have been practically accom- 

 plished no one wishing the specie when the 

 Treasury note should be able to command it, 

 and worth the same amount. Such, but for 

 this silver bill, would, in my opinion, have 

 been the result long before next January; but 

 for this ominous silver bill, by which a debased 

 coin is to be made a legal tender in the pay- 

 ment of all debts and demands, both of the 

 Government and individuals. This, as it will 

 reduce the greenbacks to the level of silver 

 and drive all gold from the country, will, in 

 my opinion, put off for years the resumption 

 of specie payments, even in the proposed de- 

 based coin, and compel us to travel again over 

 the same toilsome road we had already gone 

 over, and leave us five or ten years hence fur- 

 ther from real, honest resumption than, but 

 for the passage of such a bill, we would be to- 

 day. 



44 We shall never have a condition of things 

 in which capital will seek investment in large 

 business enterprises, creating a demand for 

 labor and securing living prices to laborers, 

 until we get back to specie payments upon a 

 fair and proper basis, so that paper shall be 

 based upon coin and redeemable in it at the 

 option of the holder ; nor until the coinage of 

 the country shall have the real and substantial 

 value for which it is made a tender. And, be- 

 ing a commercial nation, that value must cor- 

 respond with the market value in the countries 

 with which our trade is principally carried on." 



Mr. Blaine, of Maine, said : 4 ' The discussion 

 on the question of remonetizing silver, Mr. 

 President, has been prolonged, able, and ex- 

 haustive. I may not expect to add much to 

 its value, but I promise not too add much to 

 its length. I shall endeavor to consider facts 

 rather than theories, to state conclusions rath- 

 er than arguments : 



"1. I believe gold and silver coin to be 

 money of the Constitution indeed, the money 

 of the American people anterior to the Consti- 

 tution, which that great organic law recog- 

 nized as quite independent of its own existence. 

 No power was conferred on Congress to de- 

 clare that either metal should not be money. 

 Congress has therefore, in my judgment, no 

 power to demonetize silver any more than to 

 demonetize gold ; no power to demonetize ei- 

 ther any more than to demonetize both. In this 

 statement I am but repeating the weighty dictum 

 of the first of constitutional lawyers. 'I am 

 certainly of opinion,' said Mr. Webster, 'that 

 gold and silver, at rates fixed by Congress, con- 

 stitute the legal standard of value in this coun- 

 try, and that neither Congress nor any State has 

 authority to establish any other standard or to 

 displace this standard.' Few persons can be 

 found, I apprehend, who will maintain that 

 Congress possesses the power to demonetize 

 both gold and silver, or that Congress could 

 be justified in prohibiting the coinage of both ; 

 and yet in logic and legal construction it would 

 be difficult to show where and why the power 

 of Congress over silver is greater than over 

 gold greater over either than over the two. 

 If, therefore, silver has been demonetized, I am 

 in favor of remonetizing it. If its coinage has 

 been prohibited, I am in favor of ordering it to 

 be resumed. If it has been restricted, I am in 

 favor of having it enlarged. 



44 2. What power, then, has Congress over 

 gold and silver? It has the exclusive pow- 

 er to coin them ; the exclusive power to reg- 

 ulate their value ; very great, very wise, very 

 necessary powers, for the discreet exercise 

 of which a critical occasion has now arisen. 

 However men may differ about causes and pro- 

 cesses, all will admit within a few years a 

 great disturbance has taken place in the rela- 

 tive values of gold and silver, and that silver 

 is worth less or gold is worth more in the 

 money markets of the world in 1878 than in 

 1873, when the further coinage of silver dol- 

 lars was prohibited in this country. To re- 

 monetize it now as though the facts and cir- 

 cumstances of that day were surrounding us, 

 is to willfully and blindly deceive ourselves. 

 If our demonetization were the only cause for 

 the decline in the value of silver, then remon- 

 etization would be its proper and effectual 

 cure. But other causes, quite beyond our 

 control, have been far more potentially opera- 

 tive than the simple fact of Congress prohibit- 

 ing its further coinage ; and as legislators we 

 are bound to take cognizance of these causes. 

 The demonetization of silver in the great Ger- 

 man Empire, and the consequent partial, or 

 wellnigh complete, suspension of coinage in 

 the governments of the Latin Union, have been 

 the leading, dominant causes for the rapid de- 

 cline in the value of silver. 



4t I believe then if Germany were to remone- 

 tize silver, and kingdoms and states of the Lat- 

 in Union were to reopen their mints, silver 



